MachineMachine /stream - tagged with america http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron text@machinemachine.net All Language Is Murder http://www.vice.com/read/language-is-murder/all-language-is-murder-vice The Word is the Murder of the Thing http://t.co/Y1H5W9zS ]]> Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:50:14 -0700 http://www.vice.com/read/language-is-murder/all-language-is-murder-vice Innovation Starvation http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/fall2011/innovation-starvation SF has changed over the span of time I am talking about—from the 1950s (the era of the development of nuclear power, jet airplanes, the space race, and the computer) to now. Speaking broadly, the techno-optimism of the Golden Age of SF has given way to fiction written in a generally darker, more skeptical and ambiguous tone. I myself have tended to write a lot about hackers—trickster archetypes who exploit the arcane capabilities of complex systems devised by faceless others. ]]> Sun, 02 Oct 2011 04:47:54 -0700 http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/fall2011/innovation-starvation Views on Evolution, Intelligent Design Hinge on Death Anxiety http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/death-anxiety-shapes-views-on-evolution-29580/ It may be the foundation of modern biology, but fewer than 40 percent of Americans say they believe in the theory of evolution. While frustrated scientists sometimes blame religion for this knowledge gap, newly published research suggests the key factor isn’t faith per se but rather a benefit it provides that Darwin does not: A sense that our all-too-short lives have meaning.
A Canadian study just published in the journal PLoS ONE finds a strong link between existential angst and reluctance to embrace the theory of evolution. A team of researchers led by University of British Columbia psychologist Jessica… ]]> Thu, 07 Apr 2011 03:39:19 -0700 http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/death-anxiety-shapes-views-on-evolution-29580/ Clovis People Weren’t First in Americas http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/science/25archeo.html?_r=1 Archaeologists and other scientists report in Friday’s issue of the journal Science that excavations show hunter-gatherers were living at the Buttermilk Creek site and making projectile points, blades, choppers and other tools from local chert for a long time, possibly as early as 15,500 years ago. More than 50 well-formed artifacts as well as hundreds of flakes and fragments of chipping debris were embedded in thick clay sediments immediately beneath typical Clovis material. “This is the oldest credible archaeological site in North America,” Michael R. Waters, leader of the discovery team, said at a news teleconference. Dr. Waters, director of… ]]> Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:00:47 -0700 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/science/25archeo.html?_r=1 Modern art was CIA 'weapon' http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html FOR DECADES in art circles it was either a rumour or a joke, but now it is confirmed as a fact. The Central Intelligence Agency used American modern art - including the works of such artists as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko - as a weapon in the Cold War. In the manner of a Renaissance prince - except that it acted secretly - the CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years.

The connection is improbable. This was a period, in the 1950s… ]]> Mon, 01 Nov 2010 15:57:00 -0700 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html All Programs Considered by Bill McKibben http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/all-programs-considered/?pagination=false Radio receives little critical attention. Of the various methods for communicating ideas and emotions—books, newspapers, visual art, music, film, television, the Web—radio may be the least discussed, debated, understood. This is likely because it serves largely as a transmission device, a way to take other art forms (songs, sermons) and spread them out into the world. Its other uses can be fairly pedestrian too: ball games and repetitive, if remarkably effective, right-wing commercial talk radio. Rush Limbaugh is the radio ratings champ; according to the industry’s trade journal he reaches 14.25 million listeners in an average week. Sean Hannity, working… ]]> Thu, 28 Oct 2010 03:50:00 -0700 http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/all-programs-considered/?pagination=false The Pleasures of Imagination http://chronicle.com/article/The-Pleasures-of-Imagination/65678 How do Americans spend their leisure time? The answer might surprise you. The most common voluntary activity is not eating, drinking alcohol, or taking drugs. It is not socializing with friends, participating in sports, or relaxing with the family. While people sometimes describe sex as their most pleasurable act, time-management studies find that the average American adult devotes just four minutes per day to sex.

Our main leisure activity is, by a long shot, participating in experiences that we know are not real. When we are free to do whatever we want, we retreat to the imagination—to… ]]> Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:54:00 -0700 http://chronicle.com/article/The-Pleasures-of-Imagination/65678 Cargo cult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult A cargo cult is a type of religious practice that may appear in traditional tribal societies in the wake of interaction with technologically advanced cultures. The cults are focused on obtaining the material wealth (the "cargo") of the advanced culture through magical thinking and religious rituals and practices, believing that the wealth was intended for them by their deities and ancestors. Cargo cults developed primarily in remote parts of New Guinea and other Melanesian and Micronesian societies in the southwest Pacific Ocean, beginning with the first significant arrivals of Westerners in the 19th century. Similar behaviors have, however, also appeared… ]]> Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:51:00 -0700 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604-1,00.html Earlier this year I attended a daylong conference in Manhattan devoted to education reform. Called Hacking Education, it was a small, private affair: 40-odd educators, entrepreneurs, scholars, philanthropists and venture capitalists, all engaged in a sprawling six-hour conversation about the future of schools. Twenty years ago, the ideas exchanged in that conversation would have been confined to the minds of the participants. Ten years ago, a transcript might have been published weeks or months later on the Web. Five years ago, a handful of participants might have blogged about their experiences after the fact. (See the top 10 celebrity Twitter… ]]> Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:41:00 -0700 http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1902604-1,00.html Adam Curtis: It Felt Like a Kiss - The Film http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2009/07/it_felt_like_a_kiss_the_film.html This is the whole of the experimental film, It Felt Like a Kiss. It was the basis of the show [Adam Curtis] did in Manchester with Punchdrunk. The show may well come to London - but probably not till the end of the year. If you think you might want to go to the show, then you might not want to watch the film. Or you might. ]]> Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:52:00 -0700 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2009/07/it_felt_like_a_kiss_the_film.html This Way to a Face Melting Face http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv1JFszHPy4 ]]> Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:47:00 -0700 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv1JFszHPy4 Adam Curtis: It Felt Like a Kiss http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2009/06/it_felt_like_a_kiss_trail_3.html It Felt Like a Kiss started life as an experimental film I made for the BBC last year. My aim was to try and find a more involving and emotional way of doing political journalism on TV. I decided to make a film about something that has always fascinated me - how power really works in the world. To show that power is exercised not just through politics and diplomacy - but flows through our feelings and emotions, and shapes the way we think of ourselves and the world. ]]> Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:39:00 -0700 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2009/06/it_felt_like_a_kiss_trail_3.html Obama’s Address to the State of Non-belief http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2009/01/obamas-address-to-the-state-of-nonbelief.html

“We know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers.”

Barack Hussein Obama, 20th of January, 2009

Obama-non-believers

(Originally published at 3quarksdaily)

As a British citizen I watched the inauguration speech of America’s 44th President with a warm but distanced interest. But as someone who was brought up in a non-religious family, and has thrived without a belief in a deity, I listened to Barack Obama’s… ]]> Tue, 05 May 2009 08:31:00 -0700 http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2009/01/obamas-address-to-the-state-of-nonbelief.html A nation of nonbelievers http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/78458 "The government of the United States is in no sense founded on the Christian Religion." ~ George Washington / "I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature." ~ Thomas Jefferson / "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my religion." ~ Abraham Lincoln / "A just government has no need for the clergy or the church." ~ James Madison / "I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end... where every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice." ~ John F. Kennedy /… ]]> Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:40:00 -0700 http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/78458